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Summertime presents unique challenges to working parents. You still need to work, but want to enjoy this precious time with your kids and not be chained to your desk. With a bit of proactivity, you can make sure you prioritize spending time with your family without letting your business suffer.

We all know that work-life balance is hard to find, but summer makes it even more challenging. Here are a few tips to help make it more manageable…and make sure you comment and share your ideas with us!

Create a work schedule. It’s important to designate set uninterrupted work time and set no-work-allowed family time. Try to plan work time around times your kids are occupied, such as when they’re participating in a summer program or regular play dates. Each week you’ll know you’ve got guaranteed time to get work done and guaranteed time to spend with your kids.

Involve your kids with your work. Older kids can be taught complicated projects, but even younger kids can help with tasks like licking envelopes. Getting your kids to help you in the office is a win-win-win. You get to spend time with them, get assistance in your projects, and teach them valuable skills. And don’t forget your kids can teach you too (like how my 9th grade daughter is teaching me more about Snapchat!).

Connect with other work-at-home parents. Find other working parents and coordinate with them “shifts” for watching kids. Each parent can take an afternoon a week, which gives everyone in the group multiple blocks of uninterrupted work time.

Automate as much as possible. If you write a blog, create a batch of several evergreen posts you can use throughout the summer when you’re busier with family time. For social media, use a scheduling service like Hootsuite to plan several days’ worth of posts in one sitting.

Work smarter, not longer. Try to decrease your workload before summer hits or at the beginning of summer. Add a frequently asked questions page to your website to hopefully minimize the time you’ll spend answering the same client question over and over. Plan out goals and projects ahead of time so you don’t spend as much precious summer time brainstorming. Delegate tasks as much as possible to other employees. Consider hiring an intern who can work in exchange for college credit. They gain valuable work experience, and you spend less time working. Work a few less hours, but get back the lost income with these tasks to make money while you sleep.

Outsource. Are you using all your resources? Are you delegating task as you should be? If you have a Virtual Assistant, make sure you are using that service to the full extent, or maybe you need to retain more hours for the summer. If you haven’t tasks that you could outsource to a Virtual Assistant, make sure you hire yours right away.

Summer time is a great opportunity to connect with your kids and make lasting memories. With a few simple strategies you can make sure time with family does not come at the cost of your business. If you want even more help with growing your business over the summer, delegate those tasks to Alpine Small Business Solutions! We’re here to help you with any part of business building. Just reach out with an email or phone call today.

It is that time of the year where the days are getting shorter and the to-do list keeps getting longer. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with how much you have to do, the time you want to take off, the gifts you needs to get, the school needs a volunteer, you have a holiday concert to go to, and so on with the never ending list of holiday festivities. At Alpine Small Business Solutions, we see it every year with clients trying to frantically clean everything off their desks before the end of the year or their annual leave. We have three main tips for you to keep the panic out of the holiday and make sure you are still on top of it all: Schedule, Organize, and Relax. We have a three-part blog series to help you make it to the end of the year and time off in a breeze when you use your online business manager.

Schedule

Begin early. I know we all don’t like the holidays running together. Halloween is displayed before school supplies are put up, Thanksgiving is sold out before trick or treating began, and Christmas has taken over the entire fall/winter season instead of just staying in December. Yes, it gets tiresome, but you should put this practice to use to make your holiday time go more smoothly. Start early and schedule everything you need to accomplish with plenty of advance. Remember, everyone is likely trying to do the same thing you are, and you don’t want to end up at the bottom of a long pile on someone’s desk.

Leave on time. Don’t stay late at work trying to get something else done; you will always find more things that need done and you are neglecting all your other to-dos.

scheduling help

Make a to-do list that is effective. Remember to focus on today and not every single task that has to be done sometime in the future. If you skip a task on your to-do list, it should get a higher priority the next day, and not everything should be in your “red” category—not everything can be an emergency, or there is no point of color coding.

To-do lists are a great way to keep projects organized not only when leaving for the holidays but also on a daily basis. In fact, I recommend taking 15 minutes at the end of each day to create a to-do list for the following day.

Schedule when you are going complete each to-do
item. A to-do list is a good start, but now it’s time to schedule when you will complete each task. If you have items that you need to delegate, book time to hand off the project. Treat each project as its own appointment. Honor that time and protect it from interruptions as you would time with a client.

A schedule is only good if you plan it and stick to it. You will keep yourself on track for your holiday fun. Next, watch for how to get organized to get out the door to family and fun.

Tag Archives: scheduling

Schedule Your Way to Holiday Cheer Part 1 of 3